1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to providing content channels to consumer end users. More particularly, the invention relates to methods, apparatus and systems for providing content channels to consumer end users based on consumer end user wish lists.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many conventional systems and methods for providing digital content and other content from content suppliers or service providers to consumer end users involve a fixed or non-dynamic number of content sources to which the end user can subscribe or otherwise have access. For example, for video content, there usually are a fixed number of channels provided by a content service provider to which end users can subscribe to receive content.
Additional content provider services, such as video-on-demand and other pay-per-view services, have increased the number of available content selections or channels from which consumer end users can choose. However, even with the availability of such additional services, conventional systems still only offer content in a fixed, non-dynamic form. Also, the available choices from which consumer end users can choose often is determined in a manner other than by direct consumer end user preference. For example, the availability of certain content may be determined based on trends in popular culture, limited viewer polls, or on the previous success of similar content.
Digital video recording services, such as TiVo®, offer consumer end users the ability to find and record one or more occurrences of a show offered by a particular content provider according to the consumer end user's “wish list” selection criteria. For example, a consumer can have their digital video recording service find and record occurrences of a particular television program or all programs starring a particular actor available on any channel offered by the end user's content service provider. However, such ability still is limited by the available content selection of the content service provider. Also, such content selection still only provides a fixed, non-dynamic number of content channels or selections from which to choose. Moreover, the content available from the content service provider often is not determined by or based on consumer end user preference.